Sakurai Comments on Krystal in Brawl
The magnificent game developer responsible for the Smash Bros series (among other things) was interviewed about Brawl four months after its release date. However, this interview appeared in Nintendo Dream, a Japanese publication. To my knowledge, this is the first time the interview was translated. Let me repeat that, this interview is old!
Anyway, there was one particular series of questions about Wolf's inclusion in Brawl over Krystal. It really gives an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how they had to make their decisions about which characters to include. I've quoted the relevant portions below.
Question: Why did Wolf become a playable fighter, and not Krystal?
Sakurai: Wolf was a character that barely made it in due to time constraints. He was added because there was high demand for his inclusion on places like "Smash Bros. Dojo!!", and he's a popular character. Of course, if he didn't have that backing him, I don't think I could have put him in. Among the characters with high popularity, I chose one who had a high possibility of becoming realized in the game, and as a result you could say Wolf was created.
Host: Does that mean even if you wanted to add more female characters, Krystal didn't have a realistic chance of being physically implemented into the game?
Sakurai: For Krystal, we didn't have any of the technical modeling knowledge that we had cultivated with Fox and Falco, so it was like making a brand-new character from scratch. And because of the limited amount of time we had, creating Krystal wasn't realistically possible. On that point, with Wolf we already have some knowledge of how to model his character, and would require about 70% of the effort required to create a whole new character.
Host: I see. But we did get a lot of questions like, "Why wasn't Krystal a playable character?"
Sakurai: It's not that I don't understand how that feels, but if you start saying that, it becomes "Why isn't Waddle Dee playable?" or Dry Bones, or Baby Peach. There'd be no end to it.
Host: Well, that is true (laughs).
Sakurai: In the end, the three playable characters in this game from "Star Fox" are Fox and Falco, and on top of that, Wolf, because he was popular and easy to create. On the other hand, if it was a situation where it wasn't easy to create this character, and we had to make him from scratch, "Star Fox" may not have had 3 representatives. So, please think of Wolf as a lucky inclusion.
Interpret that how you will, but at the very least, we know that...
- Krystal was considered for Brawl
- Wolf only barely made it into Brawl because he was popular and so similar to Fox and Falco as a fighter
- Had Krystal been in Brawl, she would have been a fighter very different from Fox, Falco, and Wolf
Source, thanks to thatveryweirdperson for the heads up.
Comments
“Wolf as a lucky inclusion” and the fact sakurai wouldn’t of never made him if it weren’t for the dojo, could mean he would be a one timer, I could be wrong but sakurai does indeed acknowledge that ONE, Krystal in smash is a possibility and TWO, a lot of people do want her in smash. So her chances just keep getting higher. It’s almost a confirmation for her. Off topic, sakurai mentions some characters that probably won’t be in. “if you start saying that, it becomes “Why isn’t Waddle Dee playable?” or Dry Bones, or Baby Peach. There’d be no end to it.” I understand dry bones and baby peach, but waddle Dee? Did he just deconfirm a popular ballot choice? I’ll leave that up to you.
@earth being
After reading that article, this makes me even more hopeful for Krystal to be included in Smash 4 DLC. This is a really interesting turn of events here after all of Sakurai considering Krystal for Brawl. Unfortunately, the only reason why she wasn’t included was because of time constraints and he knew all along that he would have developed a unique character different from Fox and Falco.
Now to what is going on with the strong support for her in the Miiverse and most likely on the ballot, with the Starfox series becoming relevant once again this year, the release of Starfox Command on the Wii U eShop and Starfox Zero still slated for later this year, this could really help Krystal a lot in our favor and the same goes for Wolf. So far the support for Krystal has not died down and it is getting stronger every day. If this keeps up, hopefully Sakurai will finally consider putting Krystal in as the newcomer we all want. Since the development team they have now is small and working for Namco Bandai (who they worked on Starfox Assault and the design for Krystal in that game), this is another plus that can work to our advantage to which Sakurai can use. He knows that both Wolf and Krystal since Brawl and even now are popular characters along the majority of the fans. I have a feeling that Sakurai is aware of the existence of SF Zero and Miyamoto working on it. It could be the reason why Sakurai has held back on revealing any characters for DLC now. Because with Starfox becoming relevant again this year, he can release a pack that would have Wolf and Krystal (hopefully) as some sort of Starfox DLC pack for Smash 4 and also all of this because of Zero. What do you think?
@Dragonheart07
You and just about everyone on Miiverse have the same mentality. Wolf might be last veteran people care about. Krystal might be the most requested female newcomer. They at the very least have sakurai’s attention. So I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear they’re in development :)
@earth being
I agree. This is really going things in our favor after all and I sincerely hope this does work after all. With the small staff Sakurai has from Namco Bandai to back him up on this and the assets they have for Krystal since they worked on Assault and could help Sakurai this time around to do what he couldn’t do with her since Brawl after reading that article.
Didn’t have time to make krystal unique they said well they have time now so no excuses this time.
well, we can only hope that one day she is a playable character. that their working on her and just waiting for the time to unleash the furry blue worrier. just trying to stay positive. keep pestering them guys they’ll give in one day. it’s just a matter of time or until Wii-U is replaced by a new console. who knows, just go for it!
What I take away from this is: be glad we’re getting a game at all, they could have just as easily done another game. Krystal or no Krystal, furries in videogames are more and more of a rarity as time goes on, it’s nice to even have Fox McCloud in there.
they could be krystal in brawl, if they wanted to. she might be in smash 4 dlc, if they go what the fans wanted, also krystal could be another fox clone like wolf with different modification for her move set.
I met they could make*
I hope we can get more people to vote for Krystal in the Ballot!
there are people working on that as we speek. I’m doing my best to help them through google crome and miiverse.
there are people working on that as we speek. I’m doing my best to help them through google crome and miiverse.
You can see my picks there.
It looks hopeful but I can see Nintendo announcing Star Fox Zero costumes closer to Zero’s release and not a new or returning Star Fox character. If that does happen I will be very sad.
Surprised by amount of support Krystal has on miiverse. Some really nice artwork on there. Seen a really pretty one in the art academy community.
Interesting indeed, I hope he at least considers her to be in this game via DLC, if not, then we’ll need people who mod the game do it for us, and yes, SSB4 slowly is being learned (i.e. how the game is programmed, what can be done, etc).
Well, considering his response to Geno in Smash was a threat to delay the game by a day every time someone asked for Geno, the response to Krystal was very logical and positive. He doesn’t hate Krystal, isn’t upset that a lot of people are asking for her, and recognizes that adding her would mean crafting a whole new fighting style (staff!!).
Now, about that fan ballot… *watches and waits*
DUH thats kinda the whole point, she would be DIFFERENT and not another damn clone! They just took the EASY way out and used having to actually do some work as an excuse! They should know ahead of time that she is a very popular choice even before the ballot! GET ON IT NINTENDO!
Sakurai is totally right on this. Think about it… Fox alone has gone through 6 total model revisions (SF 64, Adventures, Melee, Assault, Brawl, Command)… he has had 6 different models, each one completely different looking. Since Fox is now a small, nimble, creature and not a more humanoid one from Assault, they would have to do the same thing with Krystal, she would need a completely different model to mimic what they did for Fox in Brawl and SSB 4.
But isn’t that the idea? We wanted different! We wanted diversity and variety. Enough with the clones and semi-clones. More than enough reason for Krystal to be playable in SSB 4 as DLC.